15 comments:

zumabitch
said...

This is why I sent it to you, WR. It simply does not get more glamorous than this. There are levels of rejection, and you are in the highest, most glittering echelon and then I, Zumabitch, am down at dogshit level being scraped off the Anderbo shoe.

Levels of rejection, like Dante's levels of hell, the level fits the sin. Perhaps another way to look at it is maybe w,r is wordy and seductive and gets baroque, s&m rejections, and you are pithy and Hemingwayesque and get the minimalism you earned. I wonder if it's that, or they just dress to match their letters that are all the same for each Rejector.

IV, you may be on to something here. I am a minimalist. However, I do have a name and so did my story, and I'm assuming that the rejecting editor also has a name.

Regardless of fault, this type of anonymous rejection has an implication of unimportance; it's not quite at the level of no reply at all (the ultimate in facelessness), but it smacks of the irrelevance of both story and writer in the face of all that hipness.

Here's me over at my Novel Blog, stuffing carbohydrates for the coming writing marathon. Whew! I'm already beat. I have zero confidence about this but the NaNo people just said tell as many people as possible so I guess I'll be shamed into finishing. Of course some of us have no shame, but I have extra.

What I don't get is why would an aspiring novelist / short story writer submit to journals like this? Not many people read them, their stories don't get picked for anything, and they don't pay a penny. Wouldn't you be better off submitting to places that pay for your work?

Also, after a great deal of submitting I've noticed that the smaller journals are the ones that give mean replies and/or form reject slips, while the larger commercial pubs are the ones that are more likely to actually be encouraging or at least write you something personal.

There's a lot of cache in some of these small online presses. You can build an audience, and then, when you go to sell your book and they ask what your "publicity plan" is, you can list online lit journals where you've got a readership. Some people say that it's the only way to publish stories these days. And plus they are faster to reply, and you actually *can* get published there, unlike at some of the more established magazines, which really will only publish known writers and stories sent by agents.

Thanks for clarifying, WR. I sometimes saw identifiable writers contributing to these journals, and I always wondered why.

I still think this whole "business" is ridiculous, though.

I mean, the pay really sucks. But these journals don't even pay at all, so they lend themselves to the academics. I'm so insanely frustrated by the whole thing, it just feels like a vicious trap -- like the only way to get ahead is to get an MFA and then only be read by other academics also getting MFAs while the general public has never heard of you. Like "MFA" itself is the new license to literacy.

While I received more than four words (more like two sentences) I received my rejection from anderbo in a mere ten hours. I figure either no one read my submission at all or they've got a lot of bored interns who keep late hours (my submission was sent at ten p.m.). On the bright side, at least I can send my piece out to other journals without worrying about simultaneous submissions.

Rules of the Game

4) Be nice to one another. The world is already overpopulated with asses.

Guess What?

After 15 years of rejections (most of them posted here along with all the rejections you've sent me over the years), my novel is getting published by a literary press. Little third-gendered me will soon have a book you can read for yourself and see if the hundreds of rejections were misguided or not. For more on the matter, read this post and this one too.

People Magazine Picks Miracle Girls

What the What? (This is actually for real.)

ew.com blog review

"Failure is the New Funny. Whether you're a writer ... or a bookworm ... Literary Rejections on Display is worth checking out."

Huff Po Compliment

"A highly entertaining blog."

The Millions Assesses

"An answer to what to do with your rejections: throw them away, but first, complain about them on the internet!"

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"A reminder of the competitive pressures that help drive some authors to start plagiarizing and making things up."

GALLEYCAT Chimes In

"Excellent blog."

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"Might we suggest whiling away the hours with Literary Rejections On Display? We've been hooked for the last couple of weeks..."

Psych Today Puts LROD On The Couch

"An author who, like the rest of us, experiences many more rejections than acceptances."

Blogher Offers a Female Nod

"And since something isn't really something until there's a blog about it, I give you Literary Rejections on Display."

Poets & Writers Questions LROD

"Isn't it part of the writer's job to learn from--rather than reject--rejection?"

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"Deliberately composed of unpublished individuals who wear their rejection slips as badges of integrity."

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"Caschetta’s wit sparkles in “Literary Rejections on Display,” a humorous and intelligent look at the literary world"